| Page Number |
Term |
Meaning |
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| 47 |
Seven-card stud
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Formerly the most popular variant of the game of poker in America (until it was upstaged by Texas Hold’em), seven-card stud involves two to eight players. Each player gets seven cards, some of which are face up and some of which are face down. Betting takes place five times: the first time when each player has three cards (two face down, one face up), the second time when each player has four cards (an additional card face up), the third when each player has five cards (another face up), the fourth when each player has six cards (one final face up), and the fifth when each player has seven cards (the last card is face down). To win, a player must either force his opponents into folding or have the highest five-card poker hand when betting is completed. The deception required and pacing of the game matches that of Streetcar, as Williams pits his various characters in a great match of psychological warfare (between Stanley and Blanche, between Mitch and Blanche, etc.) within the confines of what appears to be the regular life of a New Orleans community. |
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| 47 |
Lickety-split
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Steve uses this term to describe the hen running around the corner of a house in his story. Lickety split is a colloquialism that indicates quickness of speed. It originated sometime in the 1830s or 1840s, though its origins are unclear. One likely conjecture is that the onomatopoeia of “lickety” reflected the urgent clicking noises of a train or the persistent ticking of a clock, matching the world’s newfound need for speed given the advent of the industrial era. Stanley, of course, is a product of the industrial era as a worker in a plant; also, the streetcar has connections with the origins of this term (the clickety-clack of a trolley). |
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| 47 |
Fresh as a daisy
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When Stella refers to Blanche being “as fresh as a daisy,” she is using an idiom that means someone is full of enthusiasm and never tired. This idiom originates from the idea that daisies, which close their petals at sunset and open up in the morning, are always well-rested. “Daisy” itself comes from the Old English for “day’s eye,” as the flower opens up when we humans open our eyes to begin a new day. But Blanche’s retort that she is only a daisy that has been “picked a few days” reveals the lifelessness that she feels; indeed, the helplessness which she will feel after Stanley rapes her and presents her unceremoniously with her departing bus ticket. Here, then, the connection can be made with another idiom involving daisies: pushing up the daisies, which means a person is dead. |
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| 49 |
a wolf
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Blanche wonders if Mitch, who is unmarried, is a “wolf.” She likely means it in the context of the saying “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” which refers to a person who appears meek on the exterior but is actually inherently savage. Mitch is indeed rather shy when he speaks to Blanche, but it transpires that he is unforgiving of Blanche’s lies about her age and life later on in the play. While this does not make him a “wolf” in the truest sense of the metaphor, to Blanche it is just another instance of the cruelty the world has shown her (as Stella would put it). Contrast Blanche’s wondering if Mitch is a wolf to Stanley’s appearance and behavior, which is not so much a wolf in sheep’s clothing as a wolf let loose in the wild in wolf’s clothing. |
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| 50 |
kimono
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Stella’s donning of the kimono can be rather startling as it is recognized as the national costume of Japan, and appears to be out of place in a New Orleans-set play. Williams likely intended the kimono, which even in Japan is intended for the most formal of occasions, to represent Stella’s foreignness to Blanche. |
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| 51 |
Rhumba music/Xavier Cugat
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Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) is often credited with bringing the Latin infusion into American music in the 1930s and 1940s. Rhumba music is one of the salsa’s cousins, and it generally has sexual connotations. Thus, it was often suppressed and deemed lewd. The fact that it is Blanche, then, who turns on the radio to this music is hugely significant. Her rather questionable sexual endeavors has led to much trouble in her life. It is interesting that Stanley alone of the poker-playing men calls for Blanche to turn it off—his sexuality is not one to be suppressed. |
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| 52 |
Spit in the Ocean
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Spit in the Ocean is another variant of poker. Each player is dealt four cards. Then, a card is flipped over from the top of the remaining deck, and this community card—the spit in the ocean—is for all to use as the fifth card in their five-card poker hand. The spit card can be played as a wild card, and all cards of the same rank are wild cards as well. Spit in the Ocean is a much quicker game than other variants of poker, such as seven-card stud, and requires less deception—it is considered a hybrid, more “exotic” form of poker: such a description matches the son of an immigrant, straightforward Stanley (who is the one to suggest playing the game in this scene). |
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| 52 |
Little boys' room
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This term is a euphemism for the men’s toilet. Blanche invokes it when Stella is in the bathroom. Though meant to be a polite term, Blanche’s use of it can be interpreted as another example of her looking down upon Stanley, who she considers to be crass and lower-class. |
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